The Top 15 Cartoon Bands (Sorry, Gorillaz)

Gorillaz makes a stop in Houston tonight (Toyota Center, 7:30 p.m.) on their "Escape to Plastic Beach" world tour. Damon Albarn's "virtual band" is by now far better-known on this side of the pond than his original group, Blur, and is as famous for its inventive music videos as for the songs themselves.

But while Gorillaz may be the first animated band to sell tens of millions of records, they're hardly the first of their kind. Albarn owes a debt to a number of cartoon musical groups that came before, a few of which Rocks Off is happy to remind you of.

15. Josie and the Pussycats

"Long tails/ Ears for hats." With lyrics likes that, the skunk-striped Alexandra, and that Phil Spector looking guy with the ascot, we can't believe this show didn't last a hundred years.

14. Dethklok: Rocks Off questions the authenticity of any metal band, animated or not, where one of the members hasn't gone on trial for murdering someone.

13. The Way-Outs

Remember that episode of The Flintstones where something happened and Fred misinterpreted it and hijinx ensued? Yeah, we don't either.

12. Lynn Minmay

The reason it took us so long to finish the Robotech series wasn't because there were, like, 300 VHS tapes to slog through. No, it's because we had to take a week off after every Lynn Minmay performance to allow the murderous rage to subside.